Trump team now wants three massive arches built across Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump meets with members Cabinet members and others about the proposed “Victory Arch” in the Oval Office, Tuesday, October 7, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

President Donald Trump's "triumphal arch" is scheduled to be pitched officially at the Commission of Fine Arts on Thursday, but the project goes beyond that.

Trump's chairman, Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., who has been fighting for an arch for three decades, now wants to ensure three arches are built across Washington, D.C, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

In January 2026, Trump fired all of the members of the Commission and appointed his own loyalists, ensuring that all of his projects would be approved. The commission isn't the only decision-making body when it comes to building things around Washington, however.

The arch that Trump is proposing now is slated to stand between the Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery. It will not be on the cemetery's property; rather, it will stand in Virginia. Veterans groups are already opposing the arch, saying that it blocks the view of the cemetery.

But this is one of three that Cook has had his eye on crafting for at least 30 years.

“I think the president should do three,” Cook said, speaking to the press in Italy last week. The original architect of Washington, Pierre L'Enfant, wanted an arch in the District.

According to Cook, Trump “wants to complete the L’Enfant plan. No one has.”

The L'Enfant Plan had 15 plazas around the city, and each were to honor a state in the union, the original 13 with the two new, Kentucky and Vermont. Each would have a column or obelisk. Those didn't happen either. While there are squares, none of them honor the states. An old exhibit at the National Building Museum showcased "Unbuilt Washington," highlighting some of L'Enfant's ideas, including a canal along the National Mall and other never-built features.

Cook refused to answer when he was asked if he'd spoken to Trump about having three arches instead of just one.

"The president has publicly echoed Cook’s laments about Washington’s lack of an arch, vowing to build the world’s largest — an ambition that fits within his broader effort to reshape the capital’s civic landscape and align its monuments more closely with his vision of American power, patriotism and legacy," the report said.

The "triumphal Arch" was used by the Romans to commemorate military victory. A kind of self-congratulatory trophy to "winning."

One arch would loom over the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and the other over the John Philip Sousa Bridge. They would be viewed as drivers who entered Washington from the South.

Axios estimated the cost of Trump's arch at about $100 million last year. The White House said it would be a mix of private and public funds spent. However, Trump's new budget requests $15 billion from Congress to fund the arch, according to a NOTUS report last week.

There were many versions of The L'Enfant Plan, and even more subsequent ideas for Washington in the centuries that followed.

The Facebook page for the National Mall and Memorial Parks said in 2021 that not even the National Mall came to fruition in the L'Enfant Plan until 1852.

Other proposed structures throughout the years included a pair of domed buildings at the base of Capitol Hill. There was also a massive pyramid suggested to honor Abraham Lincoln at one point. Memorial Bridge was once considered a place to honor Ulysses S. Grant with a medieval-style construction featuring massive towers, similar to London Bridge.

From the Memorial Circle, a viewer currently sees a large hill rising above the trees. On it are row upon row of uniform white marble headstones, honoring those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the United States. Those soldiers who died beginning in the American Civil War are still honored there, and any soldier who dies during active duty is guaranteed the option to be buried on the land.

It's the main reason that veterans groups are suing to stop the arch. The sight of Arlington as one crosses the Memorial Bridge from the Lincoln Memorial to the cemetery is significant. Trump's arch would block off that view and be larger than almost all other monuments in the city.

“We want to honor veterans; we’re glad that people are thinking about it, and we looked at the project,” Army veteran Jon Gunderson, said when speaking to MS NOW. “For one thing, it’s three times the size of the Lincoln Memorial. It’s bigger than the Statue of Liberty or the Arc de Triomphe, and it ruins the view. If you’ve ever been to Arlington Cemetery and you’ve seen the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, you see this beautiful sweep. You see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, all the iconic parts of America … all of them had been cleared by Congress. And this ‘monument’ – I use that word loosely – would not only block the view, but it’s on a traffic circle, so visitors can’t get there.”

Now Trump's chairman of the board is talking about three of those.

"Among the most basic things is: We didn’t build skyscrapers. We’ve kept a very low-slung skyline. And one of Trump’s changes, which is this giant 250-foot-tall memorial arch, would actually be one of the very tallest buildings in Washington and would fundamentally change that skyline," wrote Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram for Vox in March.

From Your Site Articles